         
• Key
Chapter 10
- The apostle vindicates himself against the aspersions
cast on his person by the false apostle; and takes
occasion to mention his spiritual might and
authority, 1-6.
- He shows them the impropriety of
judging after the outward appearance, 7.
- Again
refers to his apostolical authority, and informs them
that when he again comes among them he will show himself
in his deeds as powerful as his letters intimated,
8-11.
- He shows that these false teachers sat down in other
men's labours, having neither authority nor influence
from God to break up new ground, while he and the
apostles in general had the regions assigned to them
through which they were to sow the seed of life; and
that he never entered into any place where the work was
made ready to his hand by others, 12-16.
- He concludes
with intimating that the glorying of those false
apostles was bad; that they had nothing but
self-commendation; and that they who glory should glory
in the Lord, 17,18.
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Verse 1. I Paul myself beseech you
by the meekness
Having now finished his
directions and advices relative to the collection
for the poor, he resumes his argument relative to the
false apostle, who had gained considerable influence by
representing St. Paul as despicable in his person, his
ministry, and his influence. Under this obloquy the apostle
was supported by the meekness and gentleness of Christ; and
through the same heavenly disposition he delayed inflicting
that punishment which, in virtue of his apostolical authority,
he might have inflicted on him who had disturbed and laboured
to corrupt the Christian Church.
Who in presence am base among you,
but being absent am bold toward you
He seems to quote these as the words of his
calumniator, as if he had said; "This apostle of yours
is a mere braggadocio; when he is among you, you know how
base and contemptible he is; when absent, see
how he brags and boasts." The word ταπεινος,
which we render base, signifies lowly, and, as
some think, short of stature. The insinuation is, that
when there was danger or opposition at hand, St. Paul acted
with great obsequiousness, fearing for his person and
authority, lest he should lose his secular influence. See the
following verse.
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Verse 2. Some, which think of us as
if we walked according to the flesh.
As it is customary for cowards and overbearing
men to threaten the weak and the
timid when present; to bluster when
absent; and to be very obsequious in the
presence of the strong and courageous. This
conduct they appear to have charged against the apostle, which
he calls here walking after the flesh- acting as a man
who had worldly ends in view, and would use any
means in order to accomplish them.
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Verse 3. Though we walk in the
flesh
That is: Although I am in the common
condition of human nature, and must live as a human being, yet
I do not war after the flesh-I do not act the coward or
the poltroon, as they insinuate. I have a good cause, a good
captain, strength at will, and courage at hand. I neither fear
them nor their master.
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Verse 4. The weapons of our
warfare
The apostle often uses the metaphor
of a warfare to represent the life and trials of a
Christian minister. See Ephesians
6:10-17; ; 1 Timothy
1:18; ; 2 Timothy
2:3-5.
Are not carnal
Here he refers to the means used by the false apostle in
order to secure his party; he calumniated St. Paul, traduced
the truth, preached false and licentious doctrines, and
supported these with sophistical reasonings.
But mighty through
God
Our doctrines are true and pure, they
come from God and lead to him, and he accompanies them with
his mighty power to the hearts of those who hear them; and the
strong holds-the apparently solid and cogent
reasoning of the philosophers, we, by these doctrines, pull
down; and thus the fortifications of heathenism are
destroyed, and the cause of Christ triumphs wherever we come;
and we put to flight the armies of the aliens.
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Verse 5. Casting down
imaginations
δογισμους. Reasonings
or opinions. The Greek philosophers valued themselves
especially on their ethic systems, in which their
reasonings appeared to be very profound and
conclusive; but they were obliged to assume
principles which were either such as did not exist, or
were false in themselves, as the whole of their
mythologic system most evidently was: truly, from what
remains of them we see that their metaphysics were
generally bombast; and as to their philosophy, it was
in general good for nothing. When the apostles came against
their gods many and their lords many with the
ONE SUPREME and ETERNAL BEING, they were confounded,
scattered, annihilated; when they came against their various
modes of purifying the mind-their
sacrificial and mediatorial system, with the
LORD JESUS CHRIST, his agony and bloody sweat,
his cross and passion, his death and
burial, and his glorious resurrection and
ascension, they sunk before them, and appeared to be
what they really were, as dust upon the balance, and lighter
than vanity.
Every high thing
Even the pretendedly sublime doctrines, for
instance, of Plato, Aristotle, and the Stoics in
general, fell before the simple preaching of Christ crucified.
The knowledge of
God
The doctrine of the unity and
eternity of the Divine nature, which was opposed
by the plurality of their idols, and the
generation of their gods, and their men-made
deities. It is amazing how feeble a resistance heathenism
made, by argument or reasoning, against the
doctrine of the Gospel! It instantly shrunk from the Divine
light, and called on the secular power to contend for
it! Popery sunk before Protestantism in the same
way, and defended itself by the same means. The
apostles destroyed heathenism wherever they
came; the Protestants confuted popery wherever
their voice was permitted to be heard.
Bringing into captivity every
thought
HEATHENISM could not recover
itself; in vain did its thousands of altars smoke with
reiterated hecatombs, their demons were silent, and their
idols were proved to be nothing in the world. POPERY
could never, by any power of self-reviviscence, restore itself
after its defeat by the Reformation: it had no
Scripture, consecutively understood; no reason,
no argument; in vain were its bells rung, its
candles lighted, its auto da fe's exhibited; in
vain did its fires blaze; and in vain were innumerable
human victims immolated on its altars! The light of God
penetrated its hidden works of darkness, and dragged its
three-headed Cerberus into open day; the monster
sickened, vomited his henbane, and fled for refuge to
his native shades.
The obedience of
Christ
Subjection to idols was annihilated
by the progress of the Gospel among the heathens; and they
soon had but one Lord, and his name one. In like
manner the doctrines of the reformation, mighty through
God, pulled down-demolished and brought into
captivity, the whole papal system; and instead of
obedience to the pope, the pretended vicar of God upon
earth, obedience to Christ, as the sole almighty Head
of the Church, was established, particularly in Great Britain,
where it continues to prevail. Hallelujah! the Lord God
Omnipotent reigneth!
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Verse 6. And having in a readiness
to revenge all disobedience
I am
ready, through this mighty armour of God, to punish those
opposers of the doctrine of Christ, and the disobedience which
has been produced by them.
When your obedience is
fulfilled.
When you have in the fullest
manner, discountenanced those men, and separated yourselves
from their communion. The apostle was not in haste to pull up
the tares, lest he should pull up the wheat
also.
All the terms in these two verses are military.
Allusion is made to a strongly fortifed city, where the
enemy had made his last stand; entrenching himself
about the walls; strengthening all his redoubts
and ramparts; raising castles, towers, and
various engines of defence and offence upon the
walls; and neglecting nothing that might tend to render his
strong hold impregnable. The army of God comes against
the place and attacks it; the strong holds
οχυροματα, all the fortified places, are carried. The
imaginations, λογισμοι, engines, and whatever
the imagination or skill of man could raise, are
speedily taken and destroyed. Every high thing,
πανυψωμα, all the castles and towers are
sapped, thrown down and demolished; the
walls are battered into breaches; and the
besieging army, carrying every thing at the point of the
sword, enter the city, storm and take the citadel. Every where
defeated, the conquered submit, and are brought into
captivity, αιχμαλωτιζοντες, are led away
captives; and thus the whole government is destroyed.
It is easy to apply these things, as far as may be
consistent with the apostle's design. The general sense
I have given in the preceding notes.
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Verse 7. Do ye look on things after
the outward appearance?
Do not be carried
away with appearances; do not be satisfied with
show and parade.
If any man trust to himself that
he is Christ's
Here, as in several other
places of this and the preceding epistle, the τις, any
or certain, person, most evidently refers to the
false apostle who made so much disturbance in the
Church. And this man trusted to himself-assumed
to himself that he was Christ's messenger: it would not
do to attempt to subvert Christianity at once; it had
got too strong a hold of Corinth to be easily dislodged; he
therefore pretended to be on Christ's side, and to derive his
authority from him.
Let him of himself
Without any authority, certainly, from God; but, as he
arrogates to himself the character of a minister of Christ,
let him acknowledge that even so we are Christ's ministers;
and that I have, by my preaching, and the miracles
which I have wrought, given the fullest proof that I am
especially commissioned by him.
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Verse 8.
For, though I should boast, authority and spiritual
power than I have yet shown, both to edify and to
punish; but I employ this for your edification
in righteousness, and not for the
destruction of any delinquent. "This," says Calmet, "is
the rule which the pastors of the Church ever propose to
themselves in the exercise of their authority; whether to
enjoin or forbid, to dispense or to oblige, to bind or to
loose. They should use this power only as Jesus Christ used
it-for the salvation, and not for the destruction, of souls."
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Verse 9.
That I may not seem, sentence, and may be supplied
thus: "I have not used this authority; nor will I add any more
concerning this part of the subject, lest I should seem, as my
adversary has insinuated, to wish to terrify you by my
letters.
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Verse 10. For his letters, say
they, are weighty and powerful
He
boasts of high powers, and that he can do great things. See on
2 Corinthians
10:1,2.
But his bodily presence is
weak
When you behold the man, you
find him a feeble, contemptible mortal; and when ye hear him
speak, his speech, ολογος, probably, his
doctrine, εξουθενημενος, is good for nothing; his
person, matter, and manner, are altogether
uninteresting, unimpressive, and too contemptible to be valued
by the wise and the learned. This seems to be the spirit and
design of this slander.
Many, both among the ancients and moderns, have endeavoured
to find out the ground there was for any part of this
calumny; as to the moral conduct of the apostle, that
was invulnerable; his motives, it is true, were
suspected and denounced by this false apostle and his
partisans; but they could never find any thing in his
conduct which could support their insinuations.
What they could not attach to his character, they
disingenuously attached to his person and his
elocution.
If we can credit some ancient writers, such as
Nicephorus, we shall find the apostle thus described:
παυλοςμικροςηνκαι συνεσταλμενοςτοτουσωματοςμεγεθος.
καιωσπεραγκυλοναυτο κεκτημενος. σμικρονδεκαικεκυφος.
τηνοφινλευκοςκαιτο
προσωπονπροφερηςψιλοςτηνκεφαληνκτλ-Nicephor., lib. ii., cap.
17. "Paul was a little man, crooked, and almost bent like a
bow; with a pale countenance, long and wrinkled; a bald head;
his eyes full of fire and benevolence; his beard long, thick,
and interspersed with grey hairs, as was his head, I quote
from Calmet, not having Nicephorus at hand.
An old Greek writer, says the same author, whose works are
found among those of Chrysostom, tom. vi. hom. 30, page
265, represents him thus:-παυλοςοτριπηχυςανθρωποςκαιτωνουρανων
απτομενος. "Paul was a man of about three cubits in height,
(four feet six,) and yet, nevertheless, touched the heavens."
Others say that "he was a little man, had a bald head, and a
large nose." See the above, and several other authorities in
Calmet. Perhaps there is not one of these statements
correct: as to Nicephorus, he is a writer of the
fourteenth century, weak and credulous, and worthy of no
regard. And the writer found in the works of
Chrysostom, in making the apostle little more than a
pigmy, has rendered his account incredible.
That St. Paul could be no such diminutive person we may
fairly presume from the office he filled under the high
priest, in the persecution of the Church of Christ; and that
he had not an impediment in his speech, but was a
graceful orator, we may learn from his whole history,
and especially from the account we have, Acts
14:12, where the Lycaonians took him for Mercury,
the god of eloquence, induced thereto by his powerful
and persuasive elocution. In short, there does not appear to
be any substantial evidence of the apostle's deformity,
pigmy stature, bald head, pale and wrinkled face, large
nose, stammering speech, all figments of an unbridled
fancy, and foolish surmisings.
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Verse 11. Such as we are in
word
A threatening of this kind would
doubtless alarm the false apostle; and it is very likely that
he did not await the apostle's coming, as he would not be
willing to try the fate of Elymas.
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Verse 12.
We dare not make ourselves, I dare neither associate
with, nor compare myself to, those who are full of
self-commendation. Some think this to be an ironical
speech.
But they, measuring themselves by
themselves
They are not sent of God; they
are not inspired by his Spirit; therefore they have no
rule to think or act by. They are also full of pride
and self-conceit; they look within themselves for
accomplishments which their self-love will soon find out; for
to it real and fictitious are the same. As they
dare not compare themselves with the true apostles of Christ,
they compare themselves with each other; and, as they have no
perfect standard, they can have no excellence;
nor can they ever attain true wisdom, which is not to
be had from looking at what we are but to what we
should be; and if without a directory, what we
should be will never appear, and consequently our
ignorance must continue. This was the case with these
self-conceited false apostles; but ουσυνιουσιν, are not
wise, Mr. Wakefield contends, is an elegant
Graecism signifying they are not aware that they
are measuring themselves by themselves,
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Verse 13. Things without our
measure
There is a great deal of
difficulty in this and the three following verses, and there
is a great diversity among the MSS.; and which is the
true reading can scarcely be determined. Our version is
perhaps the plainest that can be made of the text. By the
measure mentioned here, it seems as if the apostle
meant the commission he received from God to preach the Gospel
to the Gentiles; a measure or district that
extended through all Asia Minor and Greece, down to Achaia,
where Corinth was situated, a measure to reach even unto
you. But the expressions in these verses are all
agonistical, and taken from the stadium or race course in the
Olympic and Isthmian games. The μετρον, or measure, was
the length of the δρομος, or course; and the κανων,
rule or line, 2 Corinthians
10:15,16, was probably the same with the γραμμα, or
white line, which marked out the boundaries of the
stadium; and the verbs reach unto, stretch out,
exertions made to win the race. As this subject
is so frequently alluded to in these epistles, I have thought
it of importance to consider it particularly in the different
places where it occurs.
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Verse 14. For we stretch not
ourselves beyond
We have not proceeded
straight from Macedonia through Thessaly, and across the
Adriatic Gulf into Italy, which would have led us
beyond you westward; but knowing the mind of our
God we left this direct path, and came southward
through Greece, down into Achaia, and there we
planted the Gospel. The false apostle has therefore got into
our province, and entered into our labours, and there
boasts as if the conversion of the heathen Achaians had been
his own work. As there is an allusion here to the
stadium, and to the Olympic games in general, we may
consider the apostle as laying to the charge of the disturber
at Corinth that he had got his name surreptitiously inserted
on the military list; that he was not striving lawfully; had
no right to the stadium, and none to the crown.
See the observations at the end of 1Co 9; "1Co 9:27"
and the note on ver. 13 of this chapter; "2Co 10:13"
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Verse 15. Not boasting of things
without our measure
We speak only of
the work which God has done by us; for we have never attempted
to enter into other men's labours, and we study to convert
those regions assigned to us by the Holy Spirit. We enter the
course lawfully, and run according to rule. See
above.
When your faith is
increased
When you receive more of the life
and power of godliness, and when you can better spare me to go
to other places.
We shall be enlarged by
you
μεγαλυνθηναι probably signifies here to
be praised or commended; and the sense would be
this; We hope that shortly, on your gaining an increase of
true religion, after your long distractions and divisions, you
will plainly see that we are the true messengers of God to
you, and that in all your intercourse with your neighbours, or
foreign parts, you will speak of this Gospel preached by us as
a glorious system of saving truth; and that, in consequence,
the heathen countries around you will be the better prepared
to receive our message; and thus our rule or
district will be abundantly extended. This
interpretation agrees well with the following verse.
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Verse 16. To preach the Gospel in
the regions beyond you
He probably
refers to those parts of the Morea, such as
Sparta, that lay southward of them; and to
Italy, which lay on the west; for it does not
appear that he considered his measure or
province to extend to Libya, or any part of
Africa. See the Introduction, sec. xii.
Not to boast in another man's
line
So very scrupulous was the apostle not
to build on another man's foundation, that he would not even
go to those places where other apostles were labouring. He
appears to think that every apostle had a particular
district or province of the heathen world
allotted to him, and which God commissioned him to convert to
the Christian faith. No doubt every apostle was influenced in
the same way; and this was a wise order of God; for by these
means the Gospel was more quickly spread through the
heathen provinces than it otherwise would have been. The
apostles had deacons or ministers with them
whose business it was to water the seed sown; but the
apostles alone, under Christ, sowed and
planted.
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Verse 17. He that glorieth, let him
glory in the Lord.
Instead of boasting or
exulting even in your own success in preaching the Gospel, as
none can be successful without the especial blessing of God,
let God who gave the blessing have the glory. Even the genuine
apostle, who has his commission immediately from God himself,
takes no praise to himself from the prosperity of his work,
but gives it all to God. How little cause then have your
uncommissioned men to boast, to whom God has assigned
no province, and who only boast in another man's line
of things made ready to their hand!
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Verse 18. Not he that commendeth
himself
Not the person who makes a parade
of his own attainments; who preaches himself,
and not Christ Jesus the Lord; and, far from being your
servant for Christ's sake, affects to be your
ruler; not such a one shall be approved of God,
by an especial blessing on his labours; but he whom
the Lord commendeth, by giving him the extraordinary
gifts of the Holy Spirit, and converting the
heathen by his ministry. These were qualifications to
which the false apostle at Corinth could not pretend. He had
language and eloquence, and show and
parade; but he had neither the gifts of an
apostle nor an apostle's success.
1. DR. WHITBY observes that the apostle, in the 13th, 14th,
15th, and 16th verses, 2 Corinthians
10:13-16endeavours to advance himself above the false
apostles in the three following particulars:-
(1.) That whereas they could show no commission to
preach to the Corinthians, no measure by which God had
distributed the Corinthians to them as their province,
he could do so. We have a measure to reach
even to you, 2 Corinthians
10:13.
(2.) That whereas they went out of their line,
leaping from one Church to another, he went on orderly,
in the conversion of the heathens, from Judea through
all the interjacent provinces, till he came to
Corinth.
(3.) Whereas they only came in and perverted the Churches
where the faith had already been preached, and so could only
boast of things made ready to their hands, 2 Corinthians
10:16, he had laboured to preach the Gospel where Christ
had not been named, lest he should build on another
man's foundation, Romans
15:20.
2. We find that from the beginning God appointed to every
man his promise, and to every man his labour;
and would not suffer even one apostle to interfere with
another. This was a very wise appointment; for by this the
Gospel was not only more speedily diffused over the heathen
nations, as we have already remarked, but the Churches were
better attended to, the Christian doctrine preserved in its
purity, and the Christian discipline properly enforced. What
is any men's work is no man's in particular; and
thus the work is neglected. In every Church of God there
should be some one who for the time being has the care
of it, who may be properly called its pastor; and who
is accountable for its purity in the faith, and its godly
discipline.
3. Every man who ministers in holy things should be well
assured of his call to the work; without this he can
labour neither with confidence nor comfort. And
he should be careful to watch over the flock, that no
destroying wolf be permitted to enter the sacred fold,
and that the fences of a holy discipline be kept
in proper repair.
4. It is base, abominable, and deeply sinful, for a man to
thrust himself into other men's labours, and, by sowing
doubtful disputations among a Christian people, distract and
divide them, that he may get a party to himself. Such persons
generally act as the false apostle at Corinth; preach a
relaxed morality; place great stress upon certain
doctrines which flatter and soothe self-love; calumniate
the person, system of doctrines, and mode of
discipline, of the pastor who perhaps
planted that Church, or who in the order of God's
providence has the oversight of it. This is an evil that has
prevailed much in all ages of the Church; there is at
present much of it in the Christian world, and
Christianity is disgraced by it.
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Copyright Statement
The Adam Clarke Commentary is a derivative of an
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Bibliography
Information
Clarke, Adam. "Commentary
on 2 Corinthians 10". "The Adam Clarke Commentary".
<http://www.studylight.org/com/acc/view.cgi?book=2co&chapter=010>.
1832.
|
